under consideration; however, the Committee notes that such titles are governed by law and are subject to regulation and protection by the authorities at the highest level, since they are awarded by the King himself, who, under the Spanish Constitution, is the Head of State (art. 56) and the sole person authorized to grant such honours in accordance with the law (art. 62 (f)). other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status". Yet the law in Spain not only does not prohibit discrimination on grounds of sex where succession to noble titles is concerned, it positively requires it. There is, in my opinion, no doubt that this provision is incompatible with article 26 of the Covenant. 6. For the above reasons I consider that the Committee ought to have found communication No. 1019/2001 admissible, since it raises issues under article 26, and not declare it incompatible ratione materiae with the provisions of the Covenant. The Committee would be seriously renouncing its specific responsibilities if, in its observations concerning a communication, it proceeded in the abstract to exclude from the scope of the Covenant, in the manner of an actio popularis, sectors or institutions of society, whatever they may be, instead of examining the situation of each individual case that is submitted to it for consideration for a possible specific violation of the Covenant (article 41 of the Covenant and article 1 of the Optional Protocol). If it adopted such a procedure, it would be granting a kind of immunity from considering possible cases of discrimination prohibited by article 26 of the Covenant, since members of such excluded sectors or institutions would be unprotected. Individual opinion (dissenting) by Committee member Hipólito Solari-Yrigoyen I should like to express the following dissenting views with regard to the communication under consideration. The communication is admissible The Committee takes note of the State party’s affirmation that, in its opinion, the rules of succession to titles of nobility embody three elements of discrimination: the first element stipulates that only a descendant can succeed to the title; the second element upholds the right of primogeniture; and the third deals with sex. At the same time, the Committee also takes note of the author’s claims that the State party refers to situations different from those mentioned in the communication; that primogeniture is based on the indivisible nature of the title and does not constitute discrimination because it does not favour men over women; and, lastly, that the issue at hand is not recognition of titles of nobility but only an aspect of such recognition, namely discrimination against women, since Spanish legislation and a judgement of the Constitutional Court uphold the precedence of males, which is an affront to the dignity of women. The Committee observes that, in the present communication, the title is being disputed between collateral relations: the author as the representative of her deceased mother, and her mother’s younger brother, and that the claim deals exclusively with discrimination on the ground of sex. In the specific case of the present communication, the Committee could not make a blanket pronouncement against the State party’s institution of hereditary titles of nobility and the law by which that institution is governed, in order to exclude them from the Covenant and, in particular, from the scope of article 26, invoking incompatibility ratione materiae, because this would mean that it was turning a blind eye to the issue of sex-based discrimination raised in the complaint. The Committee has also noted that equality before the law and equal protection of the law without discrimination are not implicit but are expressly recognized and protected by article 26 of the Covenant with the broad scope that the Committee has given it, both in its comments on the norm and in its jurisprudence. This scope, moreover, is based on the clarity of a text that does not admit restrictive interpretations. In addition to recognizing the right to nondiscrimination on the ground of sex, article 26 requires States parties to ensure that their laws prohibit all discrimination in this regard and guarantee all persons equal and effective protection against such discrimination. The Spanish law on titles of nobility not only does not recognize the right to non-discrimination on the ground of sex and does not provide any guarantee for enjoying that right but imposes de jure discrimination against women, in blatant violation of article 26 of the Covenant. The Committee notes that, for the purposes of admissibility, the author has duly substantiated her claim of discrimination by reason of her sex, which could raise issues under articles 3, 17 and 26 of the Covenant. Consequently, the Committee is of the view that the communication is admissible and proceeds to consider the merits of the communication in accordance with article 5, paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol. In its general comment No. 18 on non-discrimination, the Human Rights Committee stated: Merits considerations “While article 2 limits the scope of the rights to be protected against discrimination to those provided for in the Covenant, article 26 does not specify such limitations. That is to say, article 26 provides that all persons are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law without discrimination, and that the law shall guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any of the enumerated grounds. In the view of the Committee, article 26 does not merely duplicate the guarantee already provided for in article 2 but provides in itself an autonomous right. It prohibits discrimination in law or in fact in any field regulated The ratio decidendi, or the grounds for the decision as to the merits, is limited to determining whether or not the author was discriminated against by reason of her sex, in violation of article 26 of the Covenant. The Committee could not include in its decisions issues that had not been submitted to it because, if it did so, it would be exceeding its authority by taking decisions ultra petitio. Consequently, the Committee refrains from considering the form of government (parliamentary monarchy) adopted by the State party in article 3 of its Constitution, and the nature and scope of titles of nobility since these issues are extraneous to the subject of the communication 32